NAZIS FAKE PLAY

Greymouth Evening Star, 6 May 1940, Page 8

NAZIS FAKE PLAY

RADIO PROPAGANDA LONDON, March 2. The Nazi propaganda machine is now going to new lengths or absurdity to hoodwink the German people about the progress of the war. Its latest effort is a preposterous play, broadcast from several stations on Thursday night, in which Mr. Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty, and Sir John Ellermafl. are shown making £4,000,000 between them by withholding news of the damage to H.M.S. Nelson in order to speculate on the Stock Exchange!

- The dramatic form was apparently chosen to make this fantastic charge more convincing. First an announcer stated that Mr. Churchill had done the same thing in the 'last war by withholding the news of the Battle of Jutland.

This lie ignores the fact that Mr. Churchill had ceased to be First Lord of the Admiralty in 1915, a year before the battle took place!

After the introduction the announcer was faded out, and the play began. The first scene was at the Admiralty. It showed! Mr. Churchill stuttering with rage on hearing that the tanker British Liberty had been sunk. Sir John Ellerman was introduced, and this dialogue, took place: Mr. C.: W-W-Why, Sir John Ellerman, how you have changed since we last met. You look a s-s-sick man. Sir J.: I am director of the line which has lost 16 ships in four days. Mr. C.: Why, this is un-un-unworthy of you. Your f-f-father lost twice as many ships in the same time in the last war, arid he emerged a rich man. Sir J.: I have just come from Lloyd’s. They are in a panic. The members are going mad. There is a rumour going around that the Nelson has been badly damaged. If that should be tru,e— Mr. C.: Why, that’s ri-ri ; -ridiculous. It’s one of those Nazi pro-pro-propa-ganda lies. Sir J.: It would do a lot of good if you officially denied these rumours. Mr. C.: Yes, of course I will do so. Come, cheer up. There’s a chance for you to make your f-f-fortune here. What you must do is to put every penny you have got into shipping shares.

Sir J.: I see the idea. You. mean buy up shares while the market is in a panic, and then you will announce that the Nelson was not damaged and we can sell out. But you must come in with me and we will share the profits.

To this course Mr. Churchill agrees, after Sir John has persuaded him that Mr. Chamberlain is making a fortune out of poison gas, that Sir John Anderson and Sir Samuel Hoare are engaged in a similar racket, and that this kind of activity is the recognised thingin the Cabinet! “£4,000,000 NOT ENOUGH” The scene then changes to Lloyd’s, where the Lutine bell is heard ringing almost continuously as somebody announces to the terrified members the loss of one ship after another! The third scene is a press conference at which Mr. Churchill denies the rumours about the Nelson, and in a final scene at the Admiralty he and Sir John congratulate each other on their profit. There is, however, one gloomy note. Mr. Churchill does not think £4,000,000 profit is quite enough!

This farrago of absurdity lasted for about half an hour. Sir John, incidentally, was given what purported to be a Jewish voice, and the announcer came on the air again to emphasise that members of the British Cabinet always behaved in this peculiar way! It was also pointed 1 out that, having made his pile, Mr. Churchill disclosed the damage to the Nelson, whereupon the market which had rallied after his denial, immediately collapsed again.

As incredible as this pantomime itself is the fact that it should have been given quite seriously to Germen listeners as a true represent Gon of facts’